For 10 years, I’ve been honored to serve as president of InMoment, the top customer experience technology firm in the world.

And while our focus was always on the technology, customer experience is an inherently human endeavor. Because of that, clients regularly asked us to advise them on the cultural side of the equation. And as the business value of great customer experience has become increasingly undeniable, the urgency around getting that aspect right has also grown.

Over the past few years I’ve invested more of my time, and passion, in this part of the business. Recently, InMoment and I announced a new partnership that will allow me to focus 100 percent of my time and energy toward helping organizations connect the operational side of customer experience with the human side, building cultures where employees, customers, and business thrive. We call this Red Shoes Living.

Red Shoes was a concept I originally created as an internal framework for the InMoment culture, and has been shared with hundreds of leading brands and leadership groups. In this new capacity, I will continue to present keynote presentation at conferences around the world. Also, I will continue to provide a framework for executive leadership training and organizational guidance to companies that want to create the “stand out” cultures and people so essential to customer experience, personal and business success.

For more information about how to bring Red Shoes Living to your team, please visit www.redshoesliving.com.

A word of advice: Never pass up the opportunity to experience something done right—especially where food is involved. There is a lot to be learned from the things that get people buzzing—and one place that has been buzzing in my hometown of Portland, Oregon is a restaurant called Cheryl’s On 12th.

In a late ’60s locker room, I stand with my father—nearly 300 pounds of man wrapped in wrestling spandex from the waist down. His broad bare torso topped by the head of a gentle yeti. He reaches down, puts his big hand around mine, and squares our shoulders up to the moment.

Matthew Jacobson of The Spectrum and Daily News just produced a story that’s running on the USA Today network. The article spotlights some larger-than-life pieces of my childhood and shares the Red Shoes message.

I’ll never forget the lessons I learned from my wonderful dad, and I hope, in reading this story, you will find inspiration and application from even the wildest or simplest experiences of your own life and relationships.

Hey. I’ve been away for awhile, but man I’m ready to be back. To everyone who has voiced a desire to see more Red Shoes Living on this site, “Thank you.” The need for inspiration is incredibly constant; I know it’s something I need daily.

Of all the positive examples in my life, I specifically have my daughter, McKenzie, to thank for inspiring me to get back on here. I recently joined her little family for dinner, and a message she had written on her chalkboard instantly brought a stack of thoughts to my mind. On top of that stack was “getting back on the Red Shoes site.” (Just underneath it was “eating chocolate for breakfast.”)

Each and every thought followed the same pattern: something that I would love to do but just... can’t. Why? Well, that’s the wrong question. Look at McKenzie’s chalkboard with me and see if your own list doesn’t immediately spring to mind.

She and I had a good conversation that night, and I asked her to send me the story behind the message so I could share it. This is what she told me:

I try to keep our home a place of daily inspiration, motivation, and somewhere we can feel grounded. Placing quotes around our house is any easy way to give us simple reminders of positivity and encouragement. Our kitchen chalkboard is the last thing we see as we leave every day, so I try to put things on there to give us a last boost of motivation as we go to conquer our day.

At this time, I was drawn to this particular quote because I feel like, by nature, we are surrounded by information telling us that we can’t do certain things. Limits are set by the people we work for, people we love, people we don't know, and society as a whole. As a new mother, I have found myself focusing too much energy on the things I am no longer able to do, or perhaps the things I don't think I can now accomplish as a full-time mom.

It’s been a slight identity crisis. But as I start questioning why in fact “I can’t” do those things, I realize that I indeed can do anything I want. These limits we set, in reality, are non-existent, invisible insecurities that virtually have no meaning when we challenge them. It is so simple to shift the narrative from what we can’t do to what we can. Once you start, the possibilities really become endless.

I couldn’t agree more. For me, there’s simply no reason good enough for me to not be here. There’s no answer good enough to that powerful question.

I’m so glad I still see so many people living with this question in their hearts. I spend a lot of time with one such person: My CEO at InMoment, John Sperry. He’s a man who still believes he can fly. He still believes in the unknown, the untried, the unexplored, the possible impossible. It’s amazing how much new and exciting he finds in a world that thinks it’s all been done.

I wanted to introduce this article co-featuring VP of Customer Experience at Express Jim Kaniaris and me, but the article has a nice introduction in place already:
“During his presentation, ‘Express on the Role of Customers in the Omni-Channel Strategy,’ presented at the Loyalty360 Engagement & Experience Expo held this week in Dallas, Jim Kaniaris, Vice President of Customer Experience at Express, and Lonnie Mayne, President of InMoment, discussed how the Express customer helps inform Express’s omni-channel strategy and focus on customer engagement and brand loyalty. And it boils down to one thing: A pair of red shoes.”

Every last person out there has their signature features—visible clues that tease out their story. It could be a glaring flaw or a glowing trait: a tendency to talk too fast, a flair for the dramatic, a hard time getting out of bed, an appreciation for birds, an addiction to texting, a love for baseball, even a broken finger that never healed right ... Read the full story

Entrepreneur was recently kind enough to lend me their Webspace for sharing some thoughts on business and customer experience in today’s market. I’ve been around long enough to see a pretty significant and cool change take root in the way business is done. And while I cherish the learning I did long ago in ... Read the full story

I just received a wonderful message from a man who appreciates the power of putting yourself out there. And what’s more “out there” than risking a slap on the hand (or worse) to help out a customer? Read below for a couple great examples of Red Shoes service as experienced by John Jordan, SVP ... Read the full story

Earlier this year, my close associate Ken Myres, president of Romacorp, shared a customer comment with me that came out of the Palm Desert, California location of Tony Roma’s. It had “Red Shoes” written all over it. I want to take some time to share it along with the powerful follow-up from Ken’s team, because, at ... Read the full story

After speaking at Mattress Firm’s 2014 BEDTalks in D.C. last month, they had William Warren of The Sketch Effect put together a killer little summary of my time on stage. I love it—and not just because he gave my face a bit of the “handsome news anchor” treatment. Of course I had to share it with you all.

I’ll be posting more soon from this amazing event, including a little more on the man, the myth, and the Red Shoes Award–winner: Johnny “SameDay” (sketched above).

It’s a good day today. If you don’t believe me, check out the story I saw this morning on the local news. It definitely convinced me. Take your own detour for gratitude today. Thank Joe Bell and Erik Wittreich for putting on their red shoes by following their examples and changing the course of your ... Read the full story

The Red Shoes Experience has caught hold. Companies are calling every week to learn more about it. I’m so grateful to have the humble opportunity to share the message on a regular basis. More and more organizations are understanding the meaning of a Red Shoes Experience—and working to embrace it on a large scale ... Read the full story

Sheela Raja, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist and a blogger for the Huffington Post. She is regularly featured on national television networks, including CNN/HLN, ABC and WGN-9 Chicago. She’s a wonderful and extremely knowledgable person, and I was very fortunate to share the stage with earlier this year in front of 4,200 people. Today ... Read the full story

As I often tell audiences when talking about Red Shoes: Everyone has a story. We could literally create a blockbuster Hollywood movie about everyone we come in contact with. There is not a person out there who lacks the emotions, dilemmas, defeats, and triumphs of a bestselling story. People and their stories are extremely powerful ... Read the full story

Below is a short but powerful story that was shared with me by one of my many new friends at our Toronto headquarters: Idalia Agramonte. Definitely a thought worth sharing. Enjoy! During my flight to Seattle, a little boy was traveling with his grandma. They sat across the aisle from each other. The little boy ... Read the full story

At last month’s Mindshare Technologies Best Practices Conference, I had the honor, once again, of wrapping up the event by recognizing an outstanding individual who embodies the Red Shoes philosophy: A service hero with a humble heart and an important story of service. Thad Forester is the brother of Senior Airman Mark Forester, who was ... Read the full story

Gratitude follows awareness so naturally that these two pillars of Red Shoes are more like a pair of feet than separate columns. I had an experience last month in Bryant Park, Manhattan, which perfectly illustrated this point. I was in the middle of a four-day business trip on the East Coast, and I was ... Read the full story